Cork taint may not be the most commonly encountered wine fault, but it is the one most people can name, if not always recognize. The condition typically declares itself with an off-putting whiff of wet basement, soggy cardboard, mold, or a vague but insistent mustiness. The source is something chemists know as trichloroanisole (TCA). Infection settles into the cork closures and the contamination migrates from there.
Wine so contaminated is likely to be referred to as corked (or corky). “When a customer returns a bottle to us on suspicion of cork taint, it’s always a disappointing outcome, but it’s also a chance to discuss what exactly might be going on. n opportunity, too. . We’ll often send it around for our colleagues to sniff, so that they will recognize it when they encounter it at home, in a wine bar or resto.
One of the mysteries of TCA taint is that it’s typically not the case that every bottle, or even a majority, of those leaving a given cellar will be afflicted; so just providing another bottle typically resolves the issue.
Among its more provoking aspects is the mater of actually making the call to condemn. If you know the wine, it’s very likely you will immediately detect that it’s out of sorts. If new to you and if the indications are faint or uncertain, it can be a challenge to determine just what’s going on.
When we’re tasting wines with vendors, we occasionally encounter something that raises a doubt along these lines. When we do, and the case isn’t perfectly obvious, a discussion inevitably ensues: Is it or isn’t it?
When our own experience leaves us in doubt, we appeal to the salesperson for a weigh-in. Since vendor reps are normally experienced with the wine they sell, this often settles the issue. When it doesn’t, we might ask for another bottle to be brought by for a second tasting.
This approach is one you can and should adopt when at a bar or in a restaurant dining room, by the way, since the server or the sommelier will presumably know the wine better than you do, and be in a position to offer an informed opinion. This is the primary reason they always give someone at the table a chance to sniff and sip before filling each guest’s stem. You’re expected to raise an objection if something doesn’t seem right, and not just nod your head reflexively.
We’ve learned that the scents and flavors of natural wine, can, when unfamiliar, set off TCA alarms. But naturalist wines, even when a bit outlandish, generally do not mimic the specifically disagreeable traits of a corked wine. While we don’t mud wrestle with customers over this point, we do encounter the ‘corked’ claim from time to time, when, in fact, the wine is merely not what the consumer expected or finds normative.
Think you’ve got a tainted wine on your hands? By all means speak up. And if it’s because, like the chap above, a cork has surreptitiously embedded itself in a nostril, you can count on our being discreet.
Cork taint may not be the most commonly encountered wine fault, but it is the one most people can name, if not always recognize. The condition typically declares itself with an off-putting whiff of wet basement, soggy cardboard, mold, or a vague but insistent mustiness. The source is something chemists know as trichloroanisole (TCA). Infection settles into the cork closures and the contamination migrates from there.
Wine so contaminated is likely to be referred to as corked (or corky). “When a customer returns a bottle to us on suspicion of cork taint, it’s always a disappointing outcome, but it’s also a chance to discuss what exactly might be going on. n opportunity, too. . We’ll often send it around for our colleagues to sniff, so that they will recognize it when they encounter it at home, in a wine bar or resto.
One of the mysteries of TCA taint is that it’s typically not the case that every bottle, or even a majority, of those leaving a given cellar will be afflicted; so just providing another bottle typically resolves the issue.
Among its more provoking aspects is the mater of actually making the call to condemn. If you know the wine, it’s very likely you will immediately detect that it’s out of sorts. If new to you and if the indications are faint or uncertain, it can be a challenge to determine just what’s going on.
When we’re tasting wines with vendors, we occasionally encounter something that raises a doubt along these lines. When we do, and the case isn’t perfectly obvious, a discussion inevitably ensues: Is it or isn’t it?
When our own experience leaves us in doubt, we appeal to the salesperson for a weigh-in. Since vendor reps are normally experienced with the wine they sell, this often settles the issue. When it doesn’t, we might ask for another bottle to be brought by for a second tasting.
This approach is one you can and should adopt when at a bar or in a restaurant dining room, by the way, since the server or the sommelier will presumably know the wine better than you do, and be in a position to offer an informed opinion. This is the primary reason they always give someone at the table a chance to sniff and sip before filling each guest’s stem. You’re expected to raise an objection if something doesn’t seem right, and not just nod your head reflexively.
We’ve learned that the scents and flavors of natural wine, can, when unfamiliar, set off TCA alarms. But naturalist wines, even when a bit outlandish, generally do not mimic the specifically disagreeable traits of a corked wine. While we don’t mud wrestle with customers over this point, we do encounter the ‘corked’ claim from time to time, when, in fact, the wine is merely not what the consumer expected or finds normative.
Think you’ve got a tainted wine on your hands? By all means speak up. And if it’s because, like the chap above, a cork has surreptitiously embedded itself in a nostril, you can count on our being discreet.